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A Young Entrepreneur
In 1909, Hattie partnered with Rose Roth, a seam-
stress, to open a custom clothing shop called
“Carnegie-Ladies’ Hatter” on East 10th Street in New
York City. Roth made the dresses (Hattie could not
sew) and Carnegie designed the hats. Together, the
two built a successful business, partly due to Hattie’s
sense of style and appearance. Four years later,
they moved their shop to a larger more
fashionable location on West 86th and
Riverside Drive and incorporated their business.
In 1919, Hattie bought Rose Roth's share of the
business, and Hattie Carnegie, Inc. was born.
At this time, all fashion came from Paris. Hattie
threw herself into studying Parisian styles and started
traveling several times a year to Paris on buying trips
to seek out and adapt the latest fashions for her
growing clientele of rich, fashionable American ladies.
One could buy a Chanel at Hattie Carnegie, or one
could buy her interpretation of Chanel's work.
Although she was known for her sense of style and the creations that
she put out under her label, Carnegie could not sew or cut a pattern
herself. She did, however, have an eye for talent. As her business
expanded into wholesale ready-to-wear, her company employed some
of the most prominent American fashion designers of the twentieth
century, including Norman Norell, Pauline Potter (later Baroness
Philippe de Rothschild), Jean Louis, James Galanos, and Clare
McCardell to design for her label.
Carnegie’s best-known works were
her “Little Carnegie Suits.” Carnegie’s
suits typified a style that was neither
youthful nor matronly, but very
feminine and very neat-the “Carnegie
Look." Carnegie claimed in 1951 that
“there is really no ‘Carnegie Look,’
there is only the ‘you’ look.” Carnegie
was also known for her versions of the
little black dress.
Ready-to-wear
According to the Vintage Fashion
Guild, up until the mid-1920s, all the
dresses at Hattie Carnegie were made to
order but in 1928 she hired Norman
Norell, credited as the father of
American high fashion, to design her
A Hattie Carnegie suit,
first ready-to-wear line which allowed ca. 1948, from the Robery Perry
her to expand her brand into high-end and Penny Fox Collection,
department stores and make her clothes Museum of New York
more accessible.
Hattie Carnegie reviewing the final dresses on a model before a show, 1937.
Photo: Alfred Eisenstaed
This ca. 1938(ish) evening dress was
purchased for The Orchid Ball, a debutante
ball given by Mrs. Albert Cameron Burrage
for her granddaughter, Elizabeth Burrage
Chalifoux, at the Louis XIV Ballroom,
Hotel Somerset, Boston.
I. Magnin was the first store to
buy Hattie Carnegie designs whole-
sale, making her the first custom
designer to create special collections
for a ready-to-wear label for wholesale
trade. These designs carried the I.
Magnin label and the “Hattie
Carnegie Originals” label. By the late
1930s, her ready-to-wear dresses,
hats, and accessories were sold in
better department stores and specialty
boutiques around the country.
By 1940, Hattie Carnegie, Inc.
was employing over 1,000 workers,
most working in the manufacturing of the company’s ready-to-wear
lines. Carnegie had successfully steered her business through the
Depression and came out the other side a larger, healthier, and stronger
company thanks to the cache of her brand, reputation for taste and
style, and entrepreneurial instincts.
The 1940s
The 1940s were a decade of further
brand diversification and business
expansion for Hattie Carnegie, Inc.
According to the Vintage Fashion
Guild, by the 1940s, Carnegie had
turned her store from a custom-made
dress shop into an actual department
store. There was a handbag shop
where a customer could order a bag to
match an outfit or hat; a fur salon; the
Custom Salon - a millinery shop and
ready-to-wear hat shop; a jewelry
department; an antique shop that
sold furniture, china, and glass; a
perfumes department; the Jeune Fille
shop, which offered a line of lower-
priced clothing for her younger
customers under the Spectator Sports
label; and the Blue Room, where she
sold her own and other manufacturers’ Hattie Carnegie was featured on
ready-to-wear lines. Like her name- this September 15, 1940, cover of
sake, Carnegie was now a household VOGUE magazine with a nod to
“American Fashion Openings
name in her own right.
A LIFE magazine article about Shopping for All Incomes.”
Carnegie was considered to be a
Carnegie published in 1945 features a business with reasonable pricing.
striking photo of her seated at an
elegantly appointed desk. The intro
reads, “With a ‘look,’ a little suit, and a knowledge of
all the angles, she has risen from poverty to be the
absolute boss of a $6,500,000 dress business.”
This vintage Hattie Carnegie hat is a soft furry rust
color with faux "tortoiseshell" colored beading. It
was made for John Wanamaker, and the top inside
of the crown states "Musketeer Imported Body
Made In Austria" and has the Hattie Carnegie
tag. This hat is in very good condition, both inside
and out, and is a true small size. For sale at
rubylane.com for $125.
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